Montcalm and Wolfe eBook

On the ninth of December the question of approving
the preliminaries came up before both Houses of Parliament.
There was a long debate in the Commons. Pitt was
not present, confined, it was said, by gout; till
late in the day the House was startled by repeated
cheers from the outside. The doors opened, and
the fallen Minister entered, carried in the arms of
his servants, and followed by an applauding crowd.
His bearers set him down within the bar, and by the
help of a crutch he made his way with difficulty to
his seat. “There was a mixture of the very
solemn and the theatric in this apparition,”
says Walpole, who was present. “The moment
was so well timed, the importance of the man and his
services, the languor of his emaciated countenance,
and the study bestowed on his dress were circumstances
that struck solemnity into a patriot mind, and did
a little furnish ridicule to the hardened and insensible.
He was dressed in black velvet, his legs and thighs
wrapped in flannel, his feet covered with buskins
of black cloth, and his hands with thick gloves.”
Not for the first time, he was utilizing his maladies
for purposes of stage effect. He spoke for about
three hours, sometimes standing, and sometimes seated;
sometimes with a brief burst of power, more often
with the accents of pain and exhaustion. He highly
commended the retention of Canada, but denounced the
leaving to France a share in the fisheries, as well
as other advantages tending to a possible revival
of her maritime power. But the Commons listened
coldly, and by a great majority approved the preliminaries
of peace.

These preliminaries were embodied in the definitive
treaty concluded at Paris on the tenth of February,
1763. Peace between France and England brought
peace between the warring nations of the Continent.
Austria, bereft of her allies, and exhausted by vain
efforts to crush Frederic, gave up the attempt in
despair, and signed the treaty of Hubertsburg.
The Seven Years War was ended.

Chapter 32

1763-1884

Conclusion

“This,” said Earl Granville on his deathbed,
“has been the most glorious war and the most
triumphant peace that England ever knew.”
Not all were so well pleased, and many held with Pitt
that the House of Bourbon should have been forced
to drain the cup of humiliation to the dregs.
Yet the fact remains that the Peace of Paris marks
an epoch than which none in modern history is more
fruitful of grand results. With it began a new
chapter in the annals of the world. To borrow
the words of a late eminent writer, “It is no
exaggeration to say that three of the many victories
of the Seven Years War determined for ages to come
the destinies of mankind. With that of Rossbach
began the re-creation of Germany, with that of Plassey
the influence of Europe told for the first time since
the days of Alexander on the nations of the East; with
the triumph of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham began
the history of the United States."[876]